


you run my mind

by stormss



Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: (briefly) - Freeform, Declarations Of Love, Established Relationship, Fluff, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:55:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27087457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stormss/pseuds/stormss
Summary: When Carlos is relocated for a job for at least a month, TK doesn't expect it to hit him as hard as it does. Especially when all he wants every day is to finally tell him how he really feels.
Relationships: Carlos Reyes/TK Strand, Marjan Marwani & TK Strand
Comments: 25
Kudos: 224
Collections: 9-1-1 Lone Star ▶ Carlos Reyes / Tyler Kennedy "TK" Strand





	you run my mind

**Author's Note:**

> hello! this is just a quick thing i wrote when trying to deal with some writer's block. [bellakitse](https://bellakitse.tumblr.com/) asked: "#3 or #40 for tarlos" from this [prompt list](https://reyesstrand.tumblr.com/post/631908300900974592/50-item-writing-prompts-50-wordless-ways-to-say) on tumblr. i went with #3: "travelling long distances just to see them." i hope you enjoy stef!! 
> 
> the title comes from _forrest gump_ by frank ocean! come say hi over on [my tumblr!](https://reyesstrand.tumblr.com/)

They don't say the words for a long time. 

For TK, he knows he wears his heart on his sleeve; really, Carlos isn't much different. He's always been the first to admit his feelings in every relationship he's ever been in. _Look where that got me,_ he thinks bitterly, before violently shoving those thoughts down to where he can't dwell on them. No, he won't think like that, not anymore—partly because it's starting to feel impossible for him to go another day of looking at Carlos and seeing the way he looks at _him_ and not shouting out those three words. 

He knows he feels it. Maybe for real, for the first time. Ever. 

Carlos invites him to stay over and makes him a full breakfast spread in the morning when the sun hasn't even come up yet because TK has a shift, curls still loose against his forehead, and TK thinks, _I love you._ Carlos laughs and laughs and easily joins into the banter that spills from the team all while offering the steadying presence of his arm thrown over TK's shoulders. _I love you._ Carlos sees how hard a long day of chemo hits Owen, and therefore how hard it hits TK, and he makes them enough food—all from family recipes passed down through generations—to last them a week. _I love you._ Carlos has a rough day of his own, and seeks out TK first, and, without hesitation, TK thinks it again: _I love you I love you I love you._

Thinking it and knowing it down to your core doesn't make the words come any easier, though. 

* * *

They hit one month together, for real, and TK knows in any other relationship he'd be worried about saying it so early, but for him and Carlos, it doesn't feel like _any other_ relationship. He's been swallowing down his true feelings for Carlos for nearly a year, and so he doesn't think much of it. It's the waiting to find the right time that almost kills him, though. 

Countless times, he thinks he'll get the chance; countless times, it almost slips out without any warning. He almost just tells him right there at the farmer's market one Sunday morning, as Carlos speaks warmly with one of the vendors he's known since childhood, both of them speaking in amicable Spanish and TK admittedly getting a little lost in observing the sunlight illuminating his boyfriend's profile. 

The words are right there on his lips, but he just—he can't. It needs to be right, it needs to be special. Carlos deserves special. 

TK doesn't know yet, though, that he's running out of time with him in person. At least for a little while. 

* * *

The text comes when TK's half-finished devouring his plate of Paul's stuffed peppers, which he actually helped make—if you could count cutting the tops off the bell peppers and scooping out the seeds as helping, which he _does,_ thank you very much—and he excuses himself from the table to answer it when Carlos' contact name appears on his screen.

He's expecting one of the usual texts they send each other when their shifts are over; when they end without issue and want to know what the other is up to. What TK isn't expecting is the very simple message— _call me when you get a chance?—_ that makes his stomach swoop with anxiety. 

"Carlos?" He asks, the moment his boyfriend answers after the second ring. 

"Hey, Ty," Carlos says, and he sounds...strange. Defeated, even. 

"Is everything okay?" TK starts pacing without really meaning to, staring up at the sky streaked with the pink and violet hues of dusk. 

Carlos takes a deep breath and then tells him. That he and a few others from his station are being relocated two hours away for a job. That they're leaving tonight. That he'll have to cancel their plans for date-night. That he'll be gone for at least a month. 

"It's—it's okay, Carlos," TK wonders if he even believes what he's saying. It isn't the end of the world by any means, but he can't remember the last time he had such a serious relationship turn into a long-distance one. Something evil at the back of his mind reminds him that they'll effectively be apart as long as they've been officially together if he really is gone as long as he thinks he'll be, and TK scrubs a hand down his face. "We'll make it work." 

And they do. 

At least they try. 

It isn't that TK is completely dependent on others—far from it. He's just very tactile when he loves someone. Even the rest of the team: they hug and spend almost all of their waking time together and cuddle up on the couches when someone has a bad day. When it comes to Carlos, he just misses him like he'd miss a limb, always forgetting he can't just go over to his house and be with him whenever he wants to. 

A week in, things are as okay as they can be. They text all the time, so that isn't very different from how they usually are, as they send each other stupid memes and videos from Instagram. They Facetime when they get the chance. 

But two weeks in, TK feels himself going stir-crazy. Because that desire to tell him those three words has just gotten worse with being separated from him, and he refuses to be the person that tells his boyfriend he loves him for the first time over the phone. 

Marjan must sense it, because she finds him stewing in his own thoughts in the kitchen at the end of their shift on the night that marks fifteen days apart. He shifts a little in his seat, pulling on the loose thread on the sleeve of Carlos' sweatshirt, offering her a sad smile as she deftly moves to the other side of the island and turns on the kettle. 

"Wanna talk about it?" Marjan asks, back still turned to him as she sifts through the cabinet for the teabags, and then for two mugs. 

"I just—I love him," TK starts, and Marjan throws him one of her signature _looks._ She then fully turns to join him at the island, sitting across from him. 

"I think everyone knows that, TK," Marjan says, resting her chin on her fist. "I mean, have you seen how Officer Gorgeous looks at you? It's obvious he feels the same." 

"But I—" TK stops again, searching for words, fingers tapping nervously against the countertop. He tries to ignore the staccato of his own heartbeat when he hears that someone else thinks Carlos loves him back. He shakes his head, and mutters, "I want to tell him. So fucking badly, Marj. But it needs to be right." 

Marjan turns when the kettle starts whistling; she seems to be thinking over her words as she makes them tea done to their liking. After she pushes his mug across the island, she shrugs. "What's stopping you from making tonight the right moment?" 

"He's two hours away," TK says, like it's obvious. 

Marjan shrugs again. "If you want to tell him, go tell him. He gave you his temporary address, right?" 

TK nods, both of them turning their eyes to the window when a bright flash of lightning lights up the sky. A few moments later, the alarms go off, and the second-shift rallies together to get to the trucks. He sighs and turns to his tea when the commotion's mostly ended, only for a clap of thunder to ring throughout the firehouse. Marjan's still got her eyes on him, and finally, he stands. 

"Is this insane?" TK asks, as he pats down his pockets for his phone, keys, and wallet. 

"Maybe," Marjan leans back in her stool, placing her hands over her heart, dropping her voice into a swoon. "But it's for love."

She draws out the word, making it sound like _looooove._ She's grinning, and TK rolls his eyes fondly, and doesn't mean it when he tells her, "I hate you."

"Sure you do," she says, ruffling his hair as she walks by him to get to the lockers. "Text me with all the details!"

It's the last word he gets, so he grabs his bag that's been sitting at his feet for the past thirty minutes of not knowing what to do with himself while staring down forty-eight hours off. Now he knows. His heart's still hammering against his chest, but he pushes down all hesitation as he runs out to his car, and hops inside. 

* * *

So, maybe he should have hesitated. 

It hits him half an hour into his drive that he didn't even text Carlos to make sure he wasn't working. It hits him thirty-five minutes in that he's barely gone outside of Austin, even though he's been living in the city for more than a year, now. He has half the mind to text his dad with his whereabouts when he hits a red light forty-five minutes into his drive, before he stuffs down all nervous thoughts and turns up the music. 

The rain doesn't let up. TK half-wonders if it's a sign even as he's pulling up to the curb, wipers moving rapidly over his windshield as he pep-talks himself. He doesn't realize how long he's sitting there until he gets a text, from Carlos. _are you parked outside right now?_

"Shit," he murmurs, turning off the ignition and moving his thumbs swiftly over his screen, typing back an affirmative. Then he drops his phone to the passenger seat and runs both hands down his face. He'd silently been hoping to make this as much of a surprise as possible, but he doesn't even have flowers or anything, and, and—

His phone lights up, with three new texts. 

> _is everything okay?_
> 
> _tk?_
> 
> _i'll meet you outside._

TK scrambles to grab his phone and push open the door of his car, frowning at the downpour, moving into a light jog up the long driveway of the Airbnb. He sees the recognizable silhouette of Carlos in front of the door, and TK doesn't hesitate before practically running at him, curling his arms around his solid frame. 

"TK? What's wrong?" Carlos asks, pushing him back just enough to look him over. TK's heart soars again. 

"Nothing, nothing, I swear," TK takes a deep breath. "I just—" 

He's a little breathless now, from the sudden cold shock of the rain and his own heart hammering away in his chest. 

Finally, because it's now or never, he's made enough of a show of it at this point, he tells him: "I wanted you to know that I—I love you." 

After a beat, a soft smile spreads over Carlos' face, reaching his eyes. "I know, Ty." 

"You—" 

Carlos shakes his head fondly and frames TK's face between his warm hands, his smile even wider and brighter than before. "You drove two hours out of the way on your first night off in how many days, in a _rainstorm,_ just to come and see me, TK. Of course I know you love me." 

TK finally closes the gap between them and kisses Carlos, because if he doesn't he doesn't know what he'll do with himself, right here on the front steps of the porch at Carlos' Airbnb. Carlos kisses him back like always, and TK can feel him smiling into it because he's doing the same. His hands curl into Carlos' shirt over his ribs, and TK tastes warmth and love and nothing else. 

"I love you too, you know," Carlos murmurs, thumbs gentle as they drag over his cheeks. "More than I—more than I've ever loved anyone." 

TK looks at him, eyes moving all over his face, and his heart feels like it's going to explode. 

He pulls Carlos closer, and murmurs, "come here." 

He does. And they kiss again, like idiots in the rain, finding that neither of them cares because they have each other. 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! comments/kudos are greatly appreciated!!


End file.
